Modern server applications, such as data centers and server rack environments, typically use multiple server nodes that cooperate together to provide services to clients. Conventional server motherboards are typically used in such server nodes. A server motherboard includes at least a circuit board having a number of sockets configured to fit various components, one or more processors (e.g. CPUs), and an interface for performing external communication. The CPUs include connectors having a form factor that mates with CPU sockets on the circuit board. Other components may also be used. Some of these may be incorporated into the circuit board or may fit dedicated socket(s) on the circuit board. For example, memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is also provided for the server boards. The DRAM may be a module having a dual in line memory module (DIMM) form factor. The DRAM modules may thus be plugged into DIMM memory sockets on the circuit board. This memory is accessible through the CPU.
In operation, each server board performs calculations using at least its internal CPUs. DIMM modules including DRAM for each CPU may provide faster access to items in the dedicated memory. For external communication data are routed to/from their locations in memory from/to the Ethernet interface. Similarly, CPU commands, requests, and other information are routed from/to the CPU to/from the Ethernet interface. Thus, server boards may operate individually or together to provide the desired operations.
Conventional server boards may use DRAM mounted in DIMM sockets in order to provide low latency memory accesses. However, some server applications may perform better with different types of memory. For example, a particular application may be optimized for use with flash memory or a combination of DRAM and flash. However, conventional DRAM DIMM memory modules as well as other memory modules are limited in the types and amounts of memory that can be provided.
Accordingly, a server board having improved functionality and flexibility is desired.